Excessive restrictions of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act may be a thing of the past if U.S. Representative Rick Boucher has his way

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is making its stance very clear on digital copying: Allowing users to make copies would "legalize hacking," it says. However, a new bill in the U.S. Congress aims to allow consumers to copy and safely play digital material that they legally own, and to protect user rights for consumers of copyright material. The bill also aims to protect fair use in hardware devices, which The RIAA is strongly against as of this moment.

Under the Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship (FAIR USE) Act, users will be allowed to copy material they own, but will also be granted exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA. According to the FAIR USE Act, consumers will be allowed to make limited copies of copyrighted material for personal purposes as well as for reviews, news reporting and education. Additionally, manufacturers and service providers will not be held accountable for what customers do with their devices and services.

"The fair use doctrine is threatened today as never before," said U.S. Representative Rick Boucher. "Historically, the nation's copyright laws have reflected a carefully calibrated balanced between the rights of copyright owners and the rights of the users of copyrighted material. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) dramatically tilted the copyright balance toward complete copyright protection at the expense of the public's right to fair use," Boucher added.

The court shall remit statutory damages for secondary infringement, except in a case in which the copyright owner sustains the burden of proving, and the court finds, that the act or acts constituting such secondary infringement were done under circumstances in which no reasonable person could have believed such conduct to be lawful.

The RIAA has already shown its disdain for the proposed bill. "The difference between hacking done for non-infringing purposes and hacking done to steal is impossible to determine and enforce," said the RIAA in a statement.

Late last year, Congress previously ruled that users are no longer allowed to rip DVD movies to their iPods, even if they own the movies legally. What the RIAA emphasizes is that some manufacturers may be creating devices that are intentionally easy to hack, circumventing the onboard protection measures, so that the "feature" may be attractive to end users.

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which has stood against the RIAA in many cases, the FAIR USE Act would help consumers who are being sued for wrong doing when they have not committed any crime. "The bill would loosen the grip of the DMCA, which restricts circumvention of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions even for lawful uses," said the EFF in a statement.

Since its implementation several years ago, the DMCA has been viewed by many as being too restrictive, both on consumers and on manufacturers. Many compare their current collection of DVD movies and music CDs to their old video and audio cassettes. Copying and making backups were normal everyday practices that millions did. The RIAA's stance is that digital copying has significantly impacted music sales in a negative way. Research proved that the RIAA was making unfounded claims -- while sales of actual physical CDs dropped, overall sales of music has risen tremendously.

It won't fly-while I would support such a thing, most of the friends I have don't care about consumer rights, and couldn't be bothered into writing/calling a senator. Most of my friends are non-technical, which helps to explain this a little.

Until you have some event that sinks deeply into the mind of the AVERAGE person where they can see the issue affecting them personally, don't expect much of a response from the voting masses. The only hope is if content companies are forced to fight other companies, but in the case of the DMCA, there was support from content providers and non-content providers like Microsoft along with lots of senators and including former president Bill Clinton.

Blizzard Entertainment loves the DMCA, for example and will use it anytime and any way they can, like many companies do-even if it is technically not correct (like using the DMCA to try to silence a critic). All those millions of people who play WOW, are basically supporting a company that likes the DMCA and they'll use some of that cash to keep their wishes enforceable...so the corporation speaks while the voters do not, nor care.

Unfortunaly that is very true so I say that those of you who do care should instead write a letter with a patition then get your friends to sign and send it off to your rep. Or print out multipule copies of the letter and get your friends to sign those and send them out.

PS I say those of you who care because I am a Canadian and so cannot do anything to sway your congressmen. But I do care because laws like this affect other countries as well. Groups similar to the RIAA use laws like the DMCA to help convince their countries government to pass stupid laws like the DMCA. Therefore a law like this would reduce how convincing they are.

Just google "Blizzard DMCA" and you'll see how much they love it. Note-Blizzard Entertainment is one of the few ESA members who actively uses the DMCA, so this is pretty specific to Blizzard Entertainment.

NOTE-I do not play, legally or illegally World Of Warcraft and have no interest in it (yes I have seen it, and I have friends who play it-often). After the BNETD incident, I quit buying their stuff as a form of personal protest. THE FROZEN THRONE is the very last purchase I will ever make from them...